Image forming apparatus

ABSTRACT

An image forming apparatus includes an image generating unit and a printing device. The image generating unit is configured to generate a document image based on document data of a user. The printing device is configured to print the document image. If a character appears plural times in the document data, the image generating unit converts the character that appears plural times to respective user-specific handwritten characters that are different from each other.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application relates to and claims priority rights from JapanesePatent Applications No. 2015-109686, filed on May 29, 2015, the entiredisclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Present Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art

Recently, a handwritten style font as a ready-made font is available.However, a handwritten style font is not a font obtained by replicatingindividual user's handwriting.

Meanwhile, an apparatus registers a user's handwritten character as afont in a dictionary, and afterward can generate a handwritten documentof the user using the registered font.

Further, another apparatus determines similarities between an inputcharacter pattern and fonts in plural sets of font data.

Even if a usual handwritten document includes same characters, the samecharacters do not have a completely same character style every time dueto handwriting and have somewhat different character styles. Althoughthe aforementioned technique can generate a handwritten document of theuser from document data generated by word processor software, ahandwritten document generated by the aforementioned technique iscontrived because only one handwritten character style is used for samecharacters in the document.

SUMMARY

An image forming apparatus according to an aspect of the presentdisclosure includes an image generating unit and a printing device. Theimage generating unit is configured to generate a document image basedon document data of a user. The printing device is configured to printthe document image. If a character appears plural times in the documentdata, the image generating unit converts the character that appearsplural times to respective user-specific handwritten characters that aredifferent from each other.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the presentdisclosure will become more apparent upon reading of the followingdetailed description along with the accompanied drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram that indicates a configuration of an imageforming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart that explains a behavior of the image formingapparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a diagram that explains a behavior of the image formingapparatus shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 shows a diagram that explains a combination of handwrittencharacters for generating an unregistered handwritten character inEmbodiment 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Hereinafter, embodiments according to an aspect of the present disclosewill be explained with reference to drawings.

Embodiment 1

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram that indicates a configuration of an imageforming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.The image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1 has a printer function. Theimage forming apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a printing device 11,an image scanning device 12, an operation panel 13, a storage device 14,a communication device 15, and a controller 16.

The printing device 11 is an internal device that prints a documentimage of each page based on print image data on a printing paper sheetusing an electrophotography method. For example, the print image data israster image data generated from document data (e.g. PDL (PageDescription Language) data) received by the communication device 15 anda communication control unit 25 mentioned below and transmitted from anunshown host device.

Further, the image scanning device 12 is an internal device thatoptically scans images of a document page by page, and generates imagedata of each page image.

Furthermore, the operation panel 13 is arranged on a surface of ahousing of the image forming apparatus, and includes a display devicethat displays sorts of information to a user and an input device thatdetects a user operation. For example, a liquid crystal display is usedas the display device. A key switch, a touch panel or the like is usedas the input device.

Furthermore, the storage device is a non volatile storage device thatstores ready-made font data and the like.

Furthermore, the communication device 15 is a circuit such as a networkinterface that connects to an unshown computer network and performs datacommunication with another device (e.g. a host device) connected to thenetwork.

Furthermore, the controller 16 embodies sorts of processing units usinga microcomputer or an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit). Inthis embodiment, the controller 16 embodies a print control unit 21, ascan control unit 22, a panel control unit 23, a job control unit 24, acommunication control unit 25, and a RIP (Raster Image Process)processing unit 26.

The print control unit 21 causes the printing device 11 to performprinting on the basis of the print image data.

The scan control unit 22 controls the image scanning device 12, causesit to read an image of each page in a document (printed matter), andgenerates a raster image data of each page data. The panel control unit23 controls the operation panel 13, causes the operation panel 13 todisplay sorts of information, and receives a user operation to theoperation panel 13.

The job control unit 24 receives a job request received from an unshownhost device via the communication device 15 and the communicationcontrol unit 25 and a job request based on a user operation to theoperation panel 13, and executes a job of the received job request usingthe print control unit 21, the scan control unit 22, and/or the like.For example, when the job control unit 24 receives a print job requestincluding document data, the job control unit 24 generates a rasterimage data based on the print job request, and causes the print controlunit 21 to perform printing on the basis of the raster image data.

Further, the communication control unit 25 controls the communicationdevice 15 and thereby receives a job request from an unshown host deviceand transmits a notice to the unshown host device in accordance with apredetermined communication protocol.

Further, the RIP processing unit 26 generates a document image based onuser's document data. Specifically, the RIP processing unit 26 performsa rasterization process, and thereby generates raster image data forprinting from the document data.

The RIP processing unit 26 analyzes the document data; and if acharacter appears plural times in the document data, then the RIPprocessing unit 26 converts the character that appears plural times torespective user-specific handwritten characters that are different fromeach other.

For example, regarding user-specific handwritten characters differentfrom each other corresponding to one character, the RIP processing unit26 may convert the character to respective ones of the user-specifichandwritten characters by using the user-specific handwritten charactersin turn in the order of similarities between the user-specifichandwritten characters and the character expressed in a font typespecified by the document data. These similarities can be derived usingan existent pattern matching technique or the like.

For example, regarding user-specific handwritten characters differentfrom each other corresponding to one character, the RIP processing unit26 may convert the character to respective ones of the user-specifichandwritten characters by using the user-specific handwritten charactersin turn in the order of registration timing of the user-specifichandwritten characters from newest to oldest.

Further, the RIP processing unit 26 (a) selects a font type most similarto a registered user-specific handwritten character among predeterminedfont types (i.e. predetermined ready-made handwritten style font types);and (b) converts the character in the document data to respectiveregistered user-specific handwritten characters if the user-specifichandwritten characters are registered corresponding to the character inthe document data, and converts the character to a correspondingcharacter expressed in the selected font type if the user-specifichandwritten characters are not registered corresponding to the characterin the document data.

Specifically, for example, for each font type, the RIP processing unit26 calculates a sum of the similarities between the registereduser-specific handwritten characters and corresponding charactersexpressed in the font type, and selects the font type of which the sumis largest.

For example, user's handwriting (i.e. a handwritten character) isdetected using a digital pen or a tablet on a daily basis, and itshandwritten character data (i.e. character image data, handwritingvector data or the like) is transmitted via a network to a predeterminedserver (e.g. a cloud server or the like), and in the server, registeredas a user-specific handwritten character of this user. Further, an imageof a user's handwritten document may be scanned by the image scanningdevice 12, and data of a handwritten character in the handwrittendocument may be transmitted to the server. The server stores characterdata of the user-specific handwritten character in a storage device, andtransmits data of the registered user-specific handwritten character asa response of a transmission request.

For example, as mentioned, the user-specific handwritten character isregistered as a character image; for a handwritten character of aspecified user, the RIP processing unit 26 transmits a transmissionrequest with a character image of a character (i.e. a target character)in the document data (i.e. a character image by a ready-made fontspecified in the document data) via the communication control unit 25and the communication device 15 to the server; and the server selectsone or plural user-specific handwritten characters as one or pluralhandwritten characters corresponding to the target character andtransmits the selected one or plural handwritten characters as aresponse to the request. Regarding each one of the selected one orplural user-specific handwritten characters, the similarity to thecharacter image transmitted with the transmission request is equal to orlarger than a predetermined threshold value. Thus, the RIP processingunit obtains one or plural user-specific handwritten characterscorresponding to a target character (i.e. a character of a ready-madefont) in the document data.

It should be noted that the print job request includes a user ID withthe document data, and the transmission request including the user ID istransmitted to the server. Further, these similarities can be derivedusing an existent pattern matching technique or the like. In thisprocess, after enlarging or reducing one of a character image of theregistered handwritten character and a character image transmitted withthe transmission request, the similarity between the both characterimages is determined.

Further, the server may identify a character code of the registereduser-specific handwritten character, and may associate a specificcharacter code with the registered user-specific handwritten character.In such a case, for a handwritten character, the RIP processing unit 26transmits a transmission request with a user ID and a character code ofa character (i.e. a target character) in the document data; and theserver selects one or plural user-specific handwritten characters of thereceived character code among the user-specific handwritten charactersof the user ID received with the transmission request, and transmits theselected one or plural user-specific handwritten characters as aresponse to the request. In the aforementioned manner, the RIPprocessing unit 26 may obtain one or plural user-specific handwrittencharacters corresponding to a character in the document data.

This server may be arranged inside of the image forming apparatus.

The following part explains a behavior of the aforementioned imageforming apparatus. FIG. 2 shows a flowchart that explains a behavior ofthe image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 shows a diagram thatexplains a behavior of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1.

When receiving a print job request including document data using thecommunication control unit 25 and the communication device 15, the jobcontrol unit 24 causes the RIP processing unit 26 to performrasterization of the document data. The print control unit 21 providesprint image data obtained by the rasterization to the printing device11, and the printing device 11 prints a document image based on theprint image data.

The RIP processing unit 26 analyzes the document data from the top inturn, and when detecting a character as a target character (in Step S1),the RIP processing unit 26 transmits a transmission request for ahandwritten character corresponding to the target character, receives aresponse to the request (e.g. here receives data of the one or moreregistered handwritten characters), and determines whether auser-specific handwritten character is registered corresponding to thetarget character or not on the basis of the response (in Step S2).

If it is determined that a user-specific handwritten character isregistered corresponding to the target character, then the RIPprocessing unit 26 further determines whether plural user-specifichandwritten characters are registered corresponding to the targetcharacter or not (in Step S3).

If it is determined that plural user-specific handwritten characters areregistered corresponding to the character, then the RIP processing unit26 counts up a counter for counting the number of occurrences of thetarget character and determines the current number of occurrences of thetarget character from the top to a currently-processed character in thedocument data (in Step S4), and selects a different handwrittencharacter depending on the number of occurrences (i.e. the countervalue) among the user-specific handwritten characters (in Step S5).Consequently, as shown in FIG. 3, in one document, plural user-specifichandwritten characters are used in a predetermined order. FIG. 3 showsplural user-specific handwritten characters as Japanese Hiraganacharacters. In this order, after using the last user-specifichandwritten character, the first user-specific handwritten character isused again; and thereafter in this order, the user-specific handwrittencharacters are repeatedly used. The RIP processing unit 26 converts thetarget character to a raster image of the selected handwritten character(in Step S6).

Contrarily, in Step S3, if it is determined that plural user-specifichandwritten characters are not registered corresponding to the targetcharacter (i.e. that only one user-specific handwritten character isregistered corresponding to the target character) then the RIPprocessing unit 26 selects this user-specific handwritten character (inStep S7), and converts the target character to a raster image of theselected handwritten character (in Step S6).

Contrarily, in Step S2, if it is determined that no user-specifichandwritten characters are registered corresponding to the targetcharacter, then the RIP processing unit 26 selects a character stylecorresponding to the target character in the preselected font type (i.e.ready-made handwritten style font) (in Step S8), and converts the targetcharacter to a raster image of the selected character style (in StepS6).

Subsequently, the RIP processing unit 26 determines whether the currentanalyzing position reached the end of the document data or not (in StepS9); and if the current analyzing position has not reached the end ofthe document data yet, then returning to Step S1, the RIP processingunit 26 performs the same process in and after Step S2 for asubsequently detected character (i.e. a next target character).

Contrarily, if the current analyzing position reached the end of thedocument data, then the RIP processing unit terminates the rasterizationprocess. Upon terminating the rasterization process, the job controlunit 24 instructs the print control unit 21 to perform printing, and theprint control unit 21 controls the printing device 11 and thereby causesit to print a document based on the raster image obtained by therasterization (in Step S10).

As mentioned, in Embodiment 1, if a character appears plural times inthe document data when generating a document image based on user'sdocument data, the RIP processing unit converts the character thatappears plural times to respective user-specific handwritten charactersthat are different from each other. The printing device 11 prints thedocument image in which the character has been converted.

Consequently, as well as a handwritten document by a user, even if aprinted matter includes same characters, the same characters areexpressed with handwritten characters different from each other, andtherefore, a more artless handwritten document is generated for everyuser.

Embodiment 2

In Embodiment 2, unregistered handwritten character is generated bycombining parts of respective plural registered user-specifichandwritten characters.

Specifically, in Embodiment 2, if no user-specific handwrittencharacters are registered corresponding to a character (i.e. targetcharacter) in the document data, the RIP processing unit 26 combinesparts of respective plural registered user-specific handwrittencharacters and thereby generates a user-specific handwritten character.

FIG. 4 shows a diagram that explains a combination of handwrittencharacters for generating an unregistered handwritten character inEmbodiment 2. FIG. 4 shows a combination of Chinese handwrittencharacters for generating a handwritten character that includes plural(here, two) radicals. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the RIPprocessing unit 26 decomposes a character image of the target characterin the document data into plural radical images; from a server, obtainsuser-specific handwritten characters that include parts similar to therespective radical images (i.e. parts that have similarities equal to orlarger than a predetermined threshold value) for the respective pluralradical images; and generates a handwritten character corresponding tothe target character from the obtained handwritten characters.

In the aforementioned manner, the RIP processing unit automaticallygenerates unregistered handwritten character by the combination, andconverts the target character to the generated handwritten character.

Other parts of the configuration and behaviors of the image formingapparatus in Embodiment 2 are identical or similar to those inEmbodiment 1, and therefore not explained here.

It should be understood that various changes and modifications to theembodiments described herein will be apparent to those skilled in theart. Such changes and modifications may be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the present subject matter and withoutdiminishing its intended advantages. It is therefore intended that suchchanges and modifications be covered by the appended claims.

For example, in the aforementioned embodiments, regarding user-specifichandwritten characters different from each other corresponding to onetarget character in the document data, the RIP processing unit 26 mayconvert the target character to respective ones of the user-specifichandwritten characters by using the user-specific handwritten charactersin turn in the order of priority specified to the user-specifichandwritten characters by the user from highest to lowest.

Further, in the aforementioned embodiments, in a host device, a devicedriver that transmits the aforementioned print job request may obtainthe user-specific handwritten character from the aforementioned serverand may preview a document obtained by converting the character to theobtained user-specific handwritten character.

What is claimed is:
 1. An image forming apparatus, comprising: an imagegenerating unit configured to generate a document image based ondocument data of a user; and a printing device configured to print thedocument image; wherein if a character appears plural times in thedocument data, the image generating unit converts the character thatappears plural times to respective user-specific handwritten charactersthat are different from each other.
 2. The image forming apparatusaccording to claim 1 wherein the image generating unit converts theappearing character to respective ones of the user-specific handwrittencharacters by using the user-specific handwritten characters in turn inan order of similarities between the user-specific handwrittencharacters and the appearing character expressed in a font typespecified by the document data.
 3. The image forming apparatus accordingto claim 1 wherein the image generating unit converts the appearingcharacter to respective ones of the handwritten characters by using theuser-specific handwritten characters in turn in an order of registrationtiming of the user-specific handwritten characters from newest tooldest.
 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 wherein ifno user-specific handwritten characters are registered corresponding tothe appearing character, the image generating unit combines parts ofrespective plural registered user-specific handwritten characters andthereby generates a user-specific handwritten character for theappearing character.
 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1wherein the image generating unit (a) selects a font type most similarto a registered user-specific handwritten character among predeterminedfont types; and (b) converts the appearing character to respective onesof registered user-specific handwritten characters if the user-specifichandwritten characters are registered corresponding to the appearingcharacter, and converts the appearing character to a correspondingcharacter expressed in the selected font type if the user-specifichandwritten characters are not registered corresponding to the appearingcharacter.